A discussion of all things Lakewood and East Dallas from Advocate Magazines

Oct 23, 2008

Andy Hanson, 1932-2008

Hanson, who was a long-time Dallas Times Herald photographer and a neighborhood resident, has died. He was one of the last of his kind -– a kindly, gentle man who was among the best at what he did. If you came to Dallas and were even remotely famous in the past four decades, Andy took your picture.

I worked with Andy at the Herald, and I saw him regularly even after the Herald closed in 1991. We each had a post office box at the Lakewood station, which gave us a chance to visit –- talking about the crummy service at the post office, clients who were late mailing checks, and other assorted indignities of the free-lance life. Or, rather, I whined, and Andy listened with that smile he always seemed to have. I saw him about a month ago, at a media event for the state fair, and he was in good spirits –- still shooting, still working, still being Andy.

Robert Wilonsky at the Observer, another Herald colleague of Andy’s, wrote a nice tribute, and there’s more from Paige Phelps at The Morning News here. You can also go to the Dallas Summer Musicals site for a retrospective of Andy’s work. My favorite is the shot of the Beatles during their Dallas visit in 1964 (all the way down on the left side). The picture gives some idea of just how crazy the band’s life was, the kind of insight that Andy’s work always seemed to have.